


Fast Cars

by i_will_always_find_you



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 00:49:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3790414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_will_always_find_you/pseuds/i_will_always_find_you
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re not going to stay mad at me forever, are you?” He asked Felicity when he could no longer take the deafening silence. Miles upon miles of deserted roadway lay before them, and he knew it would be hours before they reached their destination. Now was as good a time as any to have the dreaded conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fast Cars

**Author's Note:**

> Follow up to my one-shot 3x20 promo fic titled "What Could Have Been". This is based on the Arrow finale spoilers that have leaked based on certain car scene.

Oliver kept his left hand firmly on the top of the steering wheel while his right hand rested on the center console. He quickly glanced to the passenger on his right, hoping the silence between them wouldn’t last.

“You’re not going to stay mad at me forever, are you?” He asked Felicity when he could no longer take the deafening silence. Miles upon miles of deserted roadway lay before them, and he knew it would be hours before they reached their destination. Now was as good a time as any to have the dreaded conversation.

She didn’t say anything for a minute. The silence pounded in his ears and for a split second he questioned his decision.  _It was the right one_ , he told himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Oliver noticed movement as she took off her glasses, slowly rubbed her eyes, and put them back on before turning to face him.

“Pull over,” she said, unkindly.

“Felicity, no. We have to keep going.”

“I’m not going to have this conversation with you while you’re driving.”

“We can’t stop for long,” he replied while putting on his right turn signal which was pointless. There weren’t any other cars on the road.

He pulled over and turned to look at her, waiting for her to speak. When she didn’t, he asked her again, “So, you’re going to stay mad at me forever?”

“Not exactly forever, no. But for the foreseeable future, yes.” The features on her face softened slightly as she stared back at him, his eyes piercing hers.

“I had to, Felicity. Splitting up was the only way to keep everyone safe.” She slowly nodded, but he knew she was doing it out of habit and not because she truly understood his reasoning.

After accepting to take over for Ra’s, Oliver and Felicity had spent one night together before he was forced to marry Talia. They hadn’t really spoken much since - for obvious reasons - until yesterday.

Two days ago, three members of the League of Assassins had shown up at the house where Oliver was staying until Talia could figure out if she did indeed want to try and live with him. Talia, like Oliver, was still in denial they were actually married and had barely spoken to him since he father had forced them to say “I do” in an elaborate ceremony. With his two leading ladies barely speaking to him, he wasn’t exactly in the best mood to begin with when the league members unexpectedly appeared and tried to kill him. When the members started claiming they served a new master, Al Sa-Her, it became clear that somehow Malcolm had played them all, like a true magician. Ra’s. Oliver. Thea. Felicity. Diggle. They were all in danger.

Without having much time to think or devise a plan, Oliver had reluctantly brought everyone he cared about together, only to split them all up.

_“Talia is taking Thea,” Oliver announced._

_“You trust her enough to protect her?” Diggle asked._

_“Yes. Talia is in danger too - she’s promised to keep Thea safe while she continues to heal.”_

_“And Ra’s?” Diggle followed up._

_“No one knows. And I don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what happened to him.”_

_“I thought you were supposed to be the heir? How did Malcolm manage to take over the League?”_

_“Pulled some sort of magic trick,” Oliver replied._

_Felicity had remained silent until this moment, standing in the corner of Oliver’s hideout. She stepped out of the shadows, but didn’t make eye contact with him as she asked, “And just where are you proposing to send the rest of us?”_

_“We all need to go into hiding for a few weeks, maybe a few months until I can figure out exactly what happened and make sure it’s safe for us all to return,” Oliver responded. “Laurel and Nyssa are taking Captain Lance. Digg, take Lyla and Sara and get the hell out of Starling City.”_

_Diggle nodded at him, and then glanced quickly at Felicity as he realized where this was going. She seemed to realize it, too._

_“No,” she said defiantly. “I’m not going with you. I can’t.”_

_Oliver saw the hurt in her eyes, and knew it mirrored the pain in his own. “I have to keep you safe,” he whispered while he looked at her, pretending there was no one else in the room. “I only trust myself to protect you.”_

_“I could go to Barry. Or Ray.”_

_“No,” Oliver said. And his tone made it final. She crossed her arms around her chest before turning around storming off._

_“You going to go after her or should I?” Diggle asked, raising his eyebrows at Oliver._

_“Go ahead. Maybe you can talk some sense into her,” Oliver said, mindlessly twirling the ring on his left hand. He’d been wearing it for a month now and hadn’t gotten any more used to it. It served as a constant reminder of what could have been instead of what was. He stared at the spot Felicity had been moments before, praying she’d listen to Diggle and allow him to keep her safe._

So here they sat on a deserted road, hundreds of miles from Starling City. Diggle had somehow convinced her that Oliver was her best option at staying alive and that it was worth the pain - for both of them.

“It’s not the splitting-us-all-up thing that I’m upset about,” she said, breaking the tension once more. “I could have gone with anyone else. I could have gone to Barry, too, you know. And although Ray and I aren’t exactly on the best speaking terms at the moment, I’m sure he would have helped if you’d asked him.”

Oliver placed his forehead on the steering wheel for a brief moment, and then turned to look at her.

“You know I couldn’t do that.”

“Why not, Oliver?”

He didn’t want to tell her the truth - that he loved her with all his heart, with all his soul, and that the thought of leaving her protection to anyone else made him sick to his stomach. But he was married now and telling her all of that wasn’t fair to either of them.

“Barry has enough on his plate,” he said instead, which was true enough.

“And Ray?”

“I don’t think Ray would be wanting to do me any favors after what happened between you and me.”

Felicity, being the honest woman she was, had told Ray the truth - she had slept with Oliver the night before his wedding and didn’t regret it. He had obviously broken up with her in response.

“He would have if you had asked,” she responded.

“Maybe. Maybe not. We were pressed for time, I had to get us all out of Starling City and there wasn’t time for me and him to sit down and fight over you.”

“Fight over me? There’s nothing to fight over, Oliver. You’re married. To someone else.”

“Maybe not for long,” he replied. He had meant to say it under his breath, to himself, but it had slipped out before he could stop it.

“I don’t understand.”

He sighed. “Felicity. If Ra’s is dead or if Malcolm has somehow taken over the League...I have no reason to be married to Talia anymore.”

He thought she may have gasped, but he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, though. And without thinking, he reached out and placed his hand on her cheek. She looked at him longingly, and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

“I want to have hope, I do, but I can’t spend forever waiting for you,” she said softly.

“I don’t want that. I want you to be happy.”

“You’ve said that to me so many times that it’s lost meaning,” she said quietly. “I’ll only truly be happy if I can be with you.”

He lifted his hand from his cheek and turned back to face the road, “We need to get going. We’ve been stopped for too long. Do you understand why it had to be me to get you out of Starling?”

She wasn’t looking at him as she replied, “Because you love me the way that I love you. And the thought of us being apart when both our lives are in danger...you couldn’t do it.”

He breathed deeply.

“I understand,” she continued, “better than you think.”

He shifted the porsche into first gear, his left hand on the wheel, returning his right hand to rest on the center console. Felicity stared at his hand for a moment, before intertwining her fingers through his before he needed to shift again.

“At least we’ll be together. For now,” she said calmly. And they drove off, towards the horizon. 


End file.
